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Guilbeau: Ranking SEC football coaches

Louisiana
7:23 a.m. CDT August 25, 2014

Glenn Guilbeau started covering LSU for The Town Talk in 1989. He now covers the Tigers for the five Gannett newspapers in Louisiana.
Glenn Guilbeau, Sport Writer, Gannett Louisiana
Leslie Westbrook, The Advertiser
June 2, 2013(Photo: Gannett Louisiana file photo)

BATON ROUGE — The Southeastern Conference enters a football season for the first time since 2005 without a member school as the defending national champion. There is also a new four-team playoff and a new way of selection that may or may not help the cause.

The SEC strength through its recent world domination has been in numbers. The seven national champions from 2006 through 2012 included four schools — Alabama three times (2009, '11 and '12), Florida twice (2006, '08), LSU (2007) and Auburn (2010) with LSU and Auburn each reaching the BCS title game but losing in the 2011 and '13 seasons, respectively. That's a wide swath, and it will continue even though four of the league's best coaches are in their 60s — Alabama's Nick Saban at 62, LSU's Les Miles at 60, Missouri's Gary Pinkel at 62 and South Carolina's Steve Spurrier, who will be 70 next April.

Well, 60 must be the new 40, and 70 the new 50, as Spurrier may just make his first national championship run since he was 52 and at Florida. Here are the SEC's coaches by the rankings:

1. NICK SABAN, ALABAMA: No, the game has not passed him by, though more and more teams are passing better on his defenses. One man's great season is another man's bad season, and some would have it that Saban is coming off a bad season at 11-2 since he lost more than one only once from 2009 through 2012 while winning three national championships. Interestingly, no SEC coach lost fewer games than he did last year. As far as he is concerned, though, he did underachieve last season, which is why he overachieves so much. Look out for that this season. In three of his four national championship seasons, Saban lost two or more the previous season. In his four national championship seasons, his average number of losses the prior season was 2.7. Yes, Coach Spurrier, Alabama does have the most No. 1 recruiting classes in the history of planet earth, but that's why it has won three national titles since 2009 and was close in 2008 and '13. Had you recruited a bit better at Florida in the 1990s, you may have won a couple more there, too.

2. STEVE SPURRIER, SOUTH CAROLINA: After stumbling around in the good category for his first six seasons at rarely-do-well South Carolina averaging 5.5 losses a season, the ancient Superior has gone 11-2 in three straight seasons and may have one of his best teams this season. This is why he has been taking little shots at those coaches who recruit so well like Saban and Miles. Despite only one top 10 recruiting class in his nine years with the Gamecocks, according to Rivals.com, in a prospect-low state, Spurrier is winning right with those coaches who have more talent lately. This is why he remains one of the best ever.

3. LES MILES, LSU: Miles appears on schedule to make his third national championship game since 2007 in the 2015 season, which would mean one every four years. He has had five top six recruiting classes in the last six years, but his back-to-back 10-3 marks is not as good as that of Spurrier. No SEC coach has more consecutive double-digit winning seasons than Miles with four — other than Saban with six. He is one of the SEC's and the nation's most consistent winners without question. But considering the girth of talent he has recruited and the fact that no coach has had more players drafted into the NFL with 60 since 2006, he should have been winning a bit more.

4. MARK RICHT, GEORGIA: This ranking, which began in 1999, has always weighed long term success over a great year or two, and particularly beginner's luck. Richt is coming off an 8-5 season, but that was riddled with injuries. He has maintained long term success with nine double-digit win seasons since 2002 and two straight before last year.

5. GARY PINKEL, MISSOURI: Continuing with the long term success theory, Pinkel returned to the big time last year with a splash in only his second season in the SEC for out of place Mizzou. Coming off 8-5 and 5-7 seasons in 2011 and '12, the Tigers won the East, gave Auburn a great game in the SEC Championship and finished 12-2 in '13. That was Pinkel's fourth season of 10 wins or more since 2007 at a school without a lot of talent nearby, much like South Carolina.

6. KEVIN SUMLIN, TEXAS A&M: He went 20-6 overall and 10-6 in the SEC in his first two seasons, outdistancing most predictions. But he did have Johnny Manziel. Now he doesn't, and we shall see if he is more than just a flash. And remember, he did win at Houston in three of four seasons.

7. GUS MALZAHN, AUBURN: Fantastic turnaround job in 2013 to get a 3-9 and 0-8 team into the national championship game and finish 12-2, but he is another Flash on the Plains candidate. See former coach Gene Chizik, who went 14-0 and won the 2010 national championship, but was fired two seasons later after going 8-5 and 3-9. See former coach Tommy Tuberville, who went 13-0 in 2004 and 11-2 in 2006, but was fired after going 5-7 in 2008. And see former coach Terry Bowden, who went 20-1-1 in 1993 and '94 and 10-3 in 1997, but resigned under pressure after a 1-5 start in 1998. Malzahn, though, unlike other Auburn coaches, has frightened Saban enough with that offense of his to get Saban to try to change the rules concerning time between plays. Though very much a head coaching beginner with just two seasons under his belt, including one at Arkansas State, Malzahn should stick.

8. DAN MULLEN, MISSISSIPPI STATE: Steve Spurrier of all people should respect the job this coach has done. At an historical loser on the field and in non-probation-related recruiting, Mullen has been able to keep his program's head above water with four straight winning seasons. The last State coach to do that without NCAA penalties in tow was Allyn McKeen, who had eight straight winning seasons from 1939 through 1947 (no team in '43 because of WWII) and is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

9. HUGH FREEZE, OLE MISS: He has had a very good start with 7-6 and 8-5 seasons, considering the fact that he inherited a program that had gone 6-18 overall and 1-15 in the SEC. He has to maintain it to rise in this poll, and from the way he has recruited, he likely will.

10. WILL MUSCHAMP, FLORIDA: The Gators should never go 4-8 and lose to a Georgia Southern in the third year of a coach, regardless of athletic director Jeremy Foley's phony posturing. The offense has been from past decades, and Muschamp's best times will be there, too, unless he turns it around this season.

11.BUTCH JONES, TENNESSEE: Butch Jones, who won multiple times at Central Michigan and Cincinnati, has one of the most difficult jobs in the SEC. The Vols had four losing seasons around a 7-6 winner when he took over last season, and he managed a 5-7 finish. Not a bad start, but he's not at Central Michigan.

12 .BRET BIELEMA, ARKANSAS: It's hard to believe the way this guy handles himself – and combs his hair – that he actually was an impressive coach at Wisconsin with five seasons of nine wins or better in a seven-year stay. He may now make history at Arkansas with the school's first pair of back-to-back, winless seasons in conference play since 1941-42.

13. MARK STOOPS, KENTUCKY: He was 2-10 last year, but he may one day prove to be Kentucky's best overall coach since Jerry Claiborne in the 1980s. That is, if he stays after he wins.

14. DEREK MASON, VANDERBILT:First-time head coaches usually start at the bottom, which is the case here. Previous coach James Franklin did leave a two-year tradition of winning, though, and no Vanderbilt coach has inherited that since Bill Edwards followed Red Sanders in 1949.